Unhealed Pain
by Kris1101
Summary: He had everything planned, when an injury leaves him in despair and even more hopeless than before, he leaves his family and friends. When someone unsuspecting finds him they become fast friends; will she be able to help him out of his addiction and back to his family?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I don't own these characters. This first chapter is just a little background and may be a jumbled mess, but the other chapters will be more (some word).**

Looking at her, I could see my future; she was the sun, she was the angel in my abysmal world that gave life meaning. But, with every angel there are a thousand demons trying to capture your soul. What would you do if you had to choose between saving your angel or succumbing to your demons?

We met in kindergarten in Ms. Jones class. She was wearing her hair in pigtails with overalls and a white thermal sweater underneath. She was holding her father's hand when he knelt down, gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead, told her to behave and left. While she smiled after her dad, I studied her. Alice, my twin, ganged up on her as soon as she saw her - Alice was always the most talkative of the two, before she came along Alice was the only one I talked too.

"My name is Alice Louise Masen and my twin's name is Edward Anthony Masen. We're 5 but our birthday is October 5, and then we'll be six. Do you want to come to our birthday party? That would be cool. Your daddy looked cool in his uniform, is he a cop? My daddy is a lawyer….What's your name?" she finally asked, flipping her black hair and tilting her head to the side.

"Isabella - but my daddy calls me Bells or Bella," her voice was soft while she looked at Alice with the same expression. They both smiled grabbed arms, and the rest, as you say, is history.

We all shared the same classes up until our sophomore year. By this time, Alice and Jasper's relationship was going on into their third year. I gave him hell when I found out they were dating, although Alice was older (by 45 seconds - she keeps reminding me), she was smaller and I fell into big brother mode. Jasper brought his twin, Rosalie who, in turn brought her boyfriend, Emmett, and soon I had a circle of 5 people I talked to regularly.

Tragedy struck Alice and I our sophomore year, when our dad suddenly died in a car accident. He was my best friend, other than Alice, and he was just gone. I was the shoulder to cry on for my mother and for Alice. In her grief my mother tried to swallow a bottle full of pills, when I grabbed them out of her hand she sank to her knees and begged for the pills. I was able to talk her down and lead her back to her bedroom and put her to sleep. Alice was having nightmares, coming to copes with the death of our beloved father was hard for her, between watching my mother and Alice's nightmares, the only time I got to sleep was when I went to Bella's house to study. Soon, the days got easier for them and the nights got easier for all of us; I no longer had to stay up with Alice or count every pill in the bottle.

And then one day, Alice made a comment about Dad and I couldn't believe she could actually mention his name without sobbing. The thought of Dad made me sick to my stomach, still, that someone else had a hand in my father's death. I can admit it now because I see it, I didn't get over my dad's death until much later in life.

I can't say when it started or why. I had baseball - got drafted by the Rays senior year, and was expected at camp that summer - I had friends, I had good grades, I was going to Stanford, I had plans. I remember that it was the last Championship game I would play, before I went into the Minors; we won the game in the bottom of the 12th two outs, none on, when I hit a line drive down the third base line, it went into the corner and I ran as if my life depended on it. With the championship win, the team went out and we got pulled into the rush of the feeling, wanting it to last forever we were able to score some cocaine from one of the frats we were out with. The rush was something I never experienced before. I remember seeing my dad, I remember when he said how proud he was of me. My friends were all around me and wishing me luck while we all goofed off the way we did since middle school. I was happy, for the first time since my dad died, I felt _happy_. I never got over the feeling.

Two years later, at 21, I'm back home with this low that was worse from when my dad died. The Rays had me at their camp for Spring Training when I suffered a severe broken ankle. I was released two months later. With a pain in my ankle and a pain in my heart that intensified the pain from my dad's death, I found myself taking my percs more than religiously. Eventually I stretched out the pills by crushing them and snorting it. It brought that same _happy_ feeling I got after the championship game; then happiness turned into darkness.

I had everything planned, last night was my last night with my friends and my family. They wouldn't have to deal with a drug addicted brother/son/friend/boyfriend. I couldn't add that to their many problems. We had fun that last night, I made love to Bella one last time and then wrote a letter that said " _I can't live a lie and I won't drag you guys into it. I love you, you are the sun that kept me going for so long._ "

I grabbed my prescription, called Sabestian, a resident at the local hospital who was able to get some more percs for me, and left.

It was two years later, on my 23rd birthday when it got worse. Celebrating my twin's birthday alone for the third time was rough. I went out for drinks, having earned money doing odd jobs here and there, when I was able to score some cocaine. "Happy Birthday to me" I said before falling down a flight of stairs. I laughed on my way down, felt cold metal against my skull and then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: lets get some age clarification**

Alice & Edward: 32 years old

Bella, Emmett: 31 years old

Rose & Jasper: 33 years old

Kaleah: 10 years old

 **BPOV**

My phone blared in my ear, effectively waking me up before my alarm. I looked at the time and grumbled before answering the phone.

"Alice Louise, it's 4 in the morning, may I ask why you're calling me this early?" I closed my eyes and listened to her talk about her wedding.

"It's just that I'm nervous. I want everything to be perfect, and I know it won't be. Jasper says that they'll be with me in spirit, by Edward's not dead. I refuse to believe he's dead, for my sanity, he cannot be dead."

I sighed sadly, thinking about the morning I woke up and Edward wasn't there, all that was left was a _note._ Edward promised to walk Alice down the aisle when their dad died in 10th grade, but after he left and didn't show up for a couple of years, it seemed that it wasn't going to happen. It's been 12 years since that day and although, Alice and Jasper are officially married, Alice wouldn't think about a ceremony for ten years.

"And I wanted to make sure that yourdadcouldstillwalkmedowntheaisle," she sounded nervous and I know she was biting her thumb, something she always did in uncomfortable situations since Kindergarten.

"Alice, Charlie would love to walk you down the aisle, you know that," I said softly.

"O-okay, I think this is it. I want to make mom happy, you know how she gets around this time of year, besides Kaleah's birthday. Speaking of the little devil, make sure she's on time for her hair appointment on Friday and her fitting is tomorrow, we're making it a auntie/niece day, and can yo-"

"Pick up Em and Rose from the airport today at two, yes I remember Alice," I smiled at my friend's excitement despite the situation surrounding her wedding.

"Love you Bells!" She yelled before hanging up. She really hadn't changed since that first time we met in Kindergarten. She was still pushy, happy Alice.

I got up from bed and headed to the kitchen, making a cup of coffee and cleaning up the materials for a school project from the floor, sweeping the dust only a mother sees and preparing breakfast before getting ready for work. I stepped in front of Kaleah's door before waking her up, she was the light of my life, the only reason I had to take care of myself in the months after Edward left. She was perfection, she had corkscrew bronze curls with blond undertones, and olive colored skin with those green eyes that seemed to haunt me everywhere I looked. I loved my daughter more than anything in this world, but she reminded me of her father so much that sometimes it was hard looking into those eyes that seemed to share the same soul.

I walked into her room and smiled softly, "Baby, it's time to get up," she opened an eye and glared at me, I smiled sweetly and smoothed the hair on the side of her head. "The school bus is coming in two hours and I figured you would want to sit and enjoy your fresh pancakes before school."

"Is there bacon?" I looked at her and smiled,

"Only the best for you, Kal." she grinned before throwing her arms around me.

"I love you mom,"

"Love you, too. Now lets get that butt out of bed. You have a busy day today; first school, then dance and then you have your fitting for Aunt Alice's wedding," she groaned before grabbing her towel, "I'll be fifteen minutes mom!" she called out before going into her bathroom. I laughed after her and went back downstairs to heat up the food a little.

Five hours later, my little girl was at her dance rehearsal, Rose and Em were in my car and I felt on top of the world, well as on top of the world as losing your very best friend can make you feel.

 **KPOV**

"What did I tell you about coming in here while I have a class!" Ms. Shelby yelled at the man. He kept his head down and muttered an apology before walking out with sort of a limp. "God! I don't know why they pick up people from the street to clean this place, they need to worry about cleaning their own lives before they can clean a studio." Ms. Shelby was a mean lady, mean to everyone but she was one of the best dance instructors in the state and was able to worm her way in my Grandma Masen's pocketbook.

I looked at the man while he walked away, something about him was familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. One of the toddlers that we were dancing with for recital pulled on my tutu, "Don't do that Katie," I scolded before picked her up and blowing raspberries on her cheek. She pointed in the direction the man had walked from and yelled, "don't come in my class" I shushed her before anyone else could here her and told her not to repeat the mean things Ms. Shelby said to people. "They keep it clean so we can practice every day and have our recital, you want to have your recital, right?" she nodded her head before I put her down and she ran off.

Soon enough class was over, and the new janitor was let in to clean the studio. Ms. Shelby huffed and went to look after the toddlers in their holding play area while I stayed, waiting for mom. I watched the odd man with a limp sweep back and forth and then take out a mop.

"You know if you're going to stare you might as well make conversation," he said softly in a scratchy voice.

"My mom told me not to talk to strangers!" I yelped automatically before feeling an intense blush come over my cheeks. He paused, and looked at me before chuckling to himself.

"Okay then stranger," he said before getting the mop bucket and putting it in the middle of the floor, "you may want to wait outside for your folks if you don't want your stalkings to get messed up," I looked up at him in confusion.

"Kaleah!" Ms. Shelby yelled authoritatively and I ran to her before I got a chance to ask him how he knew that, "What were you doing talking to that man? Was he harassing you? I told you guys not to stay in there when the janitors are there. This studio thinks it's doing such a good job taking those druggies off the street, but they don't know what kind of people they are. Stay away from him, the last thing I need is for something to happen to you and for your grandma to stop paying tuition." I rolled my eyes at her rant. I was a big girl, I could handle myself, besides Grandpa Charlie taught me self-defense AND gave me five pepper sprays to carry around, one for each pocket in my dance bag and my backpack.


	3. Chapter 3

**KPOV**

The next couple of days were filled with getting ready for Aunt Alice and Uncle Jas's wedding ceremony. I didn't understand why they waited so long to have the ceremony, Mom said it had something to do with my dad. She shows me pictures of him when I ask, but lately when I ask she'll start crying, so I've stopped asking for them. She said she didn't believe that he was dead but nobody really knows.

The wedding was nice, if not tiresome. I wanted to play with Uncle Em, but Aunt Alice said that I couldn't mess up my hair before the pictures and then after the pictures, it was time to go home. On the drive back to the house, after saying bye to Aunt Alice and Uncle Jas as they went on their 'second honeymoon', I saw people on the street with their sleeping bags and thought about the Janitor at the studio.

"Mom?"

"Yes, Kal?"

"Why do those people sleep on the floor?"

"Well, they don't have a home to stay in. Sometimes life gets hard and you lose your way, or some people may feel they have no other option but to live on the street."

"Are they on drugs, do they eat?" I asked, thinking about what Ms. Shelby kept telling the class.

"Not all are on drugs, but some are, yes; and some people have food and some don't. Do you want to help your Grandma's charity Kal, is that what all these questions are for?" Grandma Esme gave out storage ziploc bags of essentials to the Homeless every weekend, most of the time she went, but sometimes, like for Aunt Alice's wedding, she didn't go.

"No, ma'am." I thought about what she said for the rest of the ride and wondered what happened in the janitor's life.

On Tuesday, I found myself back in the studio, practicing my part for the recital after class, when the janitor came in. "I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was here."

"Are you homeless?" I blurted out before he could leave. I saw his back stiffen as his hand went to his arm, before going back down to his side. "I'm sorry, that was rude; but Ms. Shelby said you were and I wanted to know if she was lying, she tends to do that a lot." He turned around and smiled at me in the way my mom smiles at me when I ask her questions she doesn't want to answer.

"I thought your mom said you can't talk to strangers."

"Well, I'm Kaleah. See? Now, we're not strangers," I smiled back at him.

"That's a pretty name."

"Yep, my mom said that is was a name my dad liked. Well, what's your name mister?"

"Anthony." Suddenly I heard footsteps coming towards the room and knew it was Ms. Shelby come to yell at me again for talking to the janitor, well, to Anthony.

"Ms. Kaleah, what have I told you about talking to the janitors. Come on, get your stuff, Rose is here to pick you up."

I got excited and skipped over to Ms. Shelby, I can't believe they were still here, they were supposed to go into the hotel next to the airport so they could fly back to New York early in the morning. I paused before I could leave, remembering something in my bag. I took out the ziplock bag with some essentials and another ziplock bag that I made myself with a sand which and some grapes and gave them to Anthony.

"You never answered my question, but I brought these for you anyway, incase you are, homeless." He looked like he was going to cry so I gave him a hug around his waist.

"Thank you, Kaleah" he said sincerely, "you should probably go, before she comes back and pulls you by your ear." I laughed and waved good - bye at Anthony before I left.

"Rose!" I exclaimed as I saw her leaning against her rental.

"Well, how's my favorite Kali girl?" I laughed at her lame joke and gave her a hug. "What took so long?"

"I have a new friend," I said looking over at her with a smile.

"Oooooh, a boyfriend?"

I rolled my eyes before scrunching my nose in disgust, "Noo! He's as old as you Aunt Rose."

"Really?" she asked skeptically, "And who is this guy? Is he dancer with Shelby?"

"No, he's just the janitor. I'm not supposed to talk to him. But I stayed behind in the class because I wanted to give him one of Grandma's ziplock baggies." She looked over at me with a soft smile.

"You're a good kid, you know that?"

"Yeah, I'm kind of awesome." The rest of the ride was spent talking about her life in New York and the difference between New York and California. We were soon parked in front of my house.

"So, we - Uncle Em and I - sort of was to run something by you first, we want to make sure that you'll be okay with the decision."

"Uncle Em got a job promotion, that will let us move back to California, but we'd have to live with you and your mom for a couple months before we can get all of our stuff and a new house, that hopefully you could paint a wall for us in. What do you think?" I looked at her for a minute before smiling really big.

"That's the awesomest idea I ever heard in my whole life! And I get a whole wall to paint for myself?"

"Well, we'd want your cousin to have only the best." I jumped up and down in my seat with the news.

"That's awesome! We have to plan a baby shower! It's going to be awesome, I'll have Grandma and Aunt Alice help and we can invite everyone." she laughed along with me as we got out of the car and walked into the house.

"Nobody can ever say that you're not related to Alice."

The next day I went to dance class hoping to tell Anthony and bring him a PB&J sandwich that I made, but it was a different janitor this time and he had on earplugs. I threw the PB&J sandwich in the garbage, trying not to shed any tears. Did he die? Was he okay? I didn't know these things, but then I guess we weren't really friends. I told mom and she said that Anthony probably found another job, that being a janitor was only temporary. I didn't want to hear it, he was _my_ friend, and friends just don't disappear.

Two weeks later I was at the community park across from Grandma's charity house with my friend Sam when I saw him with a a bunch of 4-5 year olds. They were wearing baseball uniforms while he carried their bats in a cart and carried what looked like a three year old in his arm. I ran to him with Sam on my heels.

"Anthony!" He looked over at me immediately and stopped the other children from walking without him. "How come you don't come to the studio anymore?" I asked, trying not to sound nosy.

"He has to teach us baseball," one of the kids said, "my daddy says it'll keep him more out of trouble." Anthony blushed slightly.

"Alright kids, that's enough. It was just a temporary job Kaleah, they usually let you work for a month at a time, but the baseball team needed an extra coach and my friend begged me, so I let someone else fill in for me a little earlier."

"I thought you were dead, or in trouble." I continued my rant feeling tears prick my eyes.

"Hey, it's okay. I'll be back in three months, okay? Who are you here with?"

"My uncle Em, it's his turn at the charity event, my grandma has the flu."

"Okay, maybe you want to go back there, you shouldn't be running and talking to strangers without an adult, okay?"

"You're my friend," I corrected him, "and how will I know if you're okay?" He thought for a second before one of the players started getting annoyed.

"We're going to miss our practice."

"We have time Tuck. I have a friend who works inside the office, Tanya. If you ask her every week, she'll tell you I'm alive, okay?" I knew Tanya, and so with that Sam and I went back to the swing set to talk about the cute boys in our grade.

The system worked and for two years, when I didn't see him as a janitor at the Studio or outside waiting for Tanya, with Tuck and Charles - the three year old Anthony was holding that one day, I knew he was okay. And then he disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: From here on, the timeline will be more consistent.**

 **Ages:** Alice & Edward/Anthony: 35

Bella, Emmett: 34

Rose & Jasper: 36

Kaleah: 13

 **KPOV**

Before he disappeared, the time with Anthony was something I treasured. I'd ask Tanya every week if he was okay, and drop off a bag for him that I packed. I invited him to many recitals, but he was never able to make it in time because the baseball team usually had games on those Saturday nights. There were many times that Tanya didn't know where he was, and when he would pop back up at the field, I used to give him hell.

We used to talk for hours at the park while grandma, or someone from the family helped out at the community center, although, when Aunt Rose helped, I usually stayed inside to help with Charolette, her now 2 year old daughter. I talked to him about everything in school, my fights with my mom - he usually got me to understand her point, which I found annoying, he would let me watch the "Little Rugrats" (their actual team name) play, and I talked about "Jake" my mom's boyfriend. Yuck. Jake was actually the only one to meet Anthony and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn't like Anthony to begin with, he only saw him as a "menace to society, leeching off my riches".

It turned out that Charles, the blonde child he was holding, was actually two years old and wasn't Tanya's child, but a child Anthony looked after for one of the men in the shelter he sometimes stayed in. Charles couldn't play with the team but Anthony would set up a T to let him bat off of it and show him the right stance. He was always so sweet and I would often times ask him about his family. He claimed not to have remembered them. I always talked about him

It was after Spring Break. I told him that I would be back after the week spent in Washington with Jake's family. I told mom to let me stay with Rose, at least then I could help watch Charlotte and have "tea" with her. I had a strong taste of apathy for Jake in my mouth, he would hog up mom's time, and I tried not to let it bother me since she hadn't been with anyone but my father, but at some point it seemed like between work and Jake, she had no time for me. I spent most of the time with Jake's mom, Rachel. It was the worst spring break of my life.

We went back to California on a Friday, leaving the weekend to do anything I wanted. I told her I wanted to go to Disneyland without Jacob. By the time I got back into school and dance classes, it was Friday. I was buzzing with energy, waiting to tell Anthony about the disastrous past two weeks I suffered through. I walked into the community center behind Grandma Esme, looking towards Tanya with a smile.

"Is he around, Tanya?" I asked excitingly, before realizing she wasn't smiling back at me. Tanya told me awhile back that her husband, George, was Anthony's sponsor. Anthony told me that he suffered from addiction. He told me to never try any drugs, and to 'Just say no'. I smiled at the time, thinking he sounded like my mom. "Tanya?"

"I'm sorry, Kal." She started to shake her head, "We haven't heard from him for three weeks, and he hasn't been to his meetings."

"But what about Charles? Who's watching Charles? He has to be around, Charles' dad is trying to find work and someone has to watch Charles for him to get the job and hold it. What about the team?" I saw Grandma come back to the reception desk.

"What's wrong, Kal?"

"It's Anthony, he's missing," I turned to look at her, going wild with possibilities that might have happened to Anthony. "Grandma, we have to find him, he's my friend. I told him that I would be here this week. I told him, Grandma. Please, we have to find him to make sure he's okay." She looked at me sadly. "Tanya, did you call the cops? They're supposed to help. You have to tell them someone is missing. He's tall, I don't know. He has green eyes like me, and he cuts his hair down low, it looks brown, but sometimes it can be red in the sun. Did you tell them? Did you tell them that he talked low sometimes because he has a hoarse voice, you have to tell them. Tanya!" I tried getting her attention back to me while she kept looking at me with those eyes. Those eyes that were telling me nothing about Anthony. I had to find him, he was the only one outside my family who really understood the real me, and I felt more comfortable telling him about somethings that I didn't even tell my mom.

"I'm sorry, honey," Tanya started. I huffed, blinking back tears. "We called in, but every information we have on him, came out wrong. There's no Anthony in the database, and he was listed as Joe Doe when George and I found him at the hospital. We have nothing to go by, I'm sor-"

"No! Did you tell them that he has green eyes, that his hair looks brown but sometimes it could look red, tha- there has to be something! He can't just disappear!"

"Kaleah, lets go back home, okay? We'll talk to your mom and see what we can do," I looked at my grandma and Tanya before running out of the community center and calling out for Anthony. An hour later I was sitting on the edge of the bench inside the community center with my head between my legs, sobbing. Something was wrong with Anthony, it was like I could feel it, something was wrong, and he needed help.


End file.
